TREATMENT OF ULCERATIVE COLITIS AND REGIONAL ENTERITIS WITH ACTH

Abstract

THE BENEFICIAL effects induced by pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) treatment on a wide variety of systemic diseases involving mesenchymal tissue, or in which an antigen-antibody type of reaction may be implicated, suggested the use of the substance in the treatment of chronic nonspecific ulcerative colitis. The study was stimulated further by the relationship of chronic stress and the general adaptation syndrome to ulcerative colitis and the significant incidence of polyarthritis and extensive secondary mesenchymal involvement of the colon in this disease. The immediate and long term effects of ACTH administration on the clinical course of six patients with ulcerative colitis and on that of two patients with regional enteritis have been evaluated over a period of 16 months, and the clinical response to ACTH therapy was integrated with the fecal lysozyme titer, which is a measure of the activity of the disease process. SELECTION OF PATIENTS In view of the